• Starside Weekly – 01.30.2026

    Starside Weekly – 01.30.2026
    Your weekly update on Stars Reach

    As we are writing this update, we should mention a service interruption: Our camera is being a bit temperamental, disconnecting from characters. We're investigating now, and we'll open the servers as soon as we have a fix. Stay tuned by watching Discord, X, Bluesky, or /r/starsreach.

    THAT'S NO MOON v7.1.1

    We smoothed out a number of problems around Haven including the juvenile Ballhogs escaping from confinement in the hospital, the target dummies moving around in the shooting gallery, the bank kiosk in the Bank of Haven, the moving survey point in the park, and the disappearing grappler.

    We also fixed some things unrelated to Haven. The gravity generators seams in the Transplanetary League Starbase should be much better. We added crafting tables to the starbase too. We changed when we award you the Trowel recipe (when you unlock the Seed Planting skill box.)

    Reminder: you must create a new character to experience the Haven part of That's No Moon – the new player experience. Existing characters cannot go to Haven.

    WHAT REDBEARDFLYNN IS EXCITED ABOUT 2026

    Everyone could use a heaping helping of optimism right now, and thankfully, Redbeardflynn is ready to serve some up!

    In a new video, he features 15 MMO games to look forward to in 2026. It's likely no mystery why we're sharing it this week. (Spoiler: We got a lovely mention!)

    We're thrilled to see Stars Reach on the list, and we're in fantastic company. This year's going to be exceptionally good for MMOs!

    CONTROLLED CHAOS IS EXCITED ABOUT STARS REACH IN 2026

    Controlled Chaos gives us his list of top five things he hopes to see happen in or added to Stars Reach in 2026.

    We can't disagree with any of them. They sound great.

    MMORPG COVERS NEW PLAYER TUTORIAL BASE ON HAVEN

    Christina describes how the tutorial works and what to expect on Haven. She explains how this section fits into the greater Stars Reach experience by teaching you important basics. She also mentions other improvements outside of Haven such as chat upgrades.

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    PLAYTEST SCHEDULE

    The playtests have resumed their usual Thursday-morning-through-Tuesday-morning cadence.

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    LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE

    We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:

    • The Transplanetary League set
    • The Stars Reach logo set
    • The Infinite Worlds set

    You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store

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    HOW YOU CAN HELP 

    If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. 

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  • Starside Weekly – 01.23.2026

    Your weekly update on Stars Reach

    THAT'S NO MOON

    A huge number of changes have been made in this update. The largest of those changes is the new training base on the moon of Haven that you encounter after you finish the Hallway experience with a new character.

    Eventually, the new player's path will be:

    Preamble → Hallway → Haven → Crucible → TPL Starbase and Beyond

    Currently, Haven is completed and we're working on Crucible, so you'll skip the Crucible step for now and move directly from Haven to the Transplanetary League Starbase.

    You must create a new character to experience this part of That's No Moon. Existing characters cannot go to Haven.

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    The town of Haven at night.

    SO WHAT IS HAVEN?

    Haven is the name of a moon where a Transplanetary League training base has been built for the specific purpose of training new recruits.

    It is a thriving township built around the same concepts as the GovBot townships you have seen and built on other planets. This includes its own mayor, Bob Howard, who greets all residents personally.

    The citizens of Haven will send you on a dozen or so short missions crafted to introduce you to fundamental elements needed to understand and enjoy playing Stars Reach.

    You'll receive Klaatu and XP awards along the way, as well as earning your first tools, and even making your first weapon.

    Everything else should be self-explanatory, and if it's not, that's exactly why we're running these playtests. Please let us know if anything is confusing or tedious! We'd even enjoy hearing if you think it's fun!

     

    SYSTEMS CREATED OR CHANGED FOR HAVEN

    • Underlying mechanisms and categories we need for our procedurally-generated content missions (to be introduced in the near future), used for the first time here in Haven.
    • The BioScanner tool for doing non-destructive scans of Makers and Creatures. (You can use it to add creatures to your collection without having to kill them. They may still try to kill you though.)
      • This will be used for flora scanning soon also, but not quite yet.
    • Better NPC and NPC chat controls
    • The whole mission interface got a massive overhaul (and is used for regular Mission Kiosk missions also)
    • "Scanner" features for the BioScanner, Harvester and Xyloslicer. (TAB to select a resource, then "Q" to scan for where the closest one is in the world so you can hunt it down. Kind of like a cross between Maker Scanning and Mineral Prospecting.)

    For the rest of the update notes, including the new first-person camera perspective, please see:

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    TIPS FOR HAVEN

    Tip #1: Actually read the dialogues. Seriously.

    Tip #2: Don't forget that you have a grappler. Your grappling ability will make your life better. Did you forget how to activate the grappler? Use the "R" key.

    Tip #3: When the time comes for you to build your weapon, you will have a choice of five handguns: Cryostar, Atomizer, Pulsar, Spitfire, or Voltstar. Don't worry. They will give you the parts and the recipe so you can pick any one of those five.

    Cryostar – cold damage
    Atomizer – corrosive damage
    Pulsar – kinetic damage
    Spitfire – heat damage
    Voltstar – shock damage

    This also comes at the time you are asked to hunt down certain dangerous fauna that have been threatening a group of scientists. Again, don't worry. The fauna you are asked to hunt have no immunities. Pick whichever handgun type seems fun to you.

    Tip #4: Regardless of weapon choice, hunting with a friend will help a lot.

    Tip #5: Don't be afraid to try the new First Person camera mode. In some situations, it's the best approach. You are free to switch camera distances whenever you want by simply scrolling the mousewheel.

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    The new first-person camera perspective is already a crowd favorite for photography.

    PLAYTEST SCHEDULE

    We have one upcoming livestream scheduled, a Fireside Chat on Saturday, January 24, 2026, with Game Director Dave Georgeson.

    The playtests will resume at the end of the Fireside Chat and follow our usual Thursday-through-Tuesday-morning cadence.

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    LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE

    We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:

    • The Transplanetary League set
    • The Stars Reach logo set
    • The Infinite Worlds set

    You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store

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    HOW YOU CAN HELP 

    If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. 

    ,

  • That's No Moon – The Haven Update

    That's No Moon – The Haven Update

    That's No Moon Update 7.1.2

    Today we are releasing a small update with a couple more improvements too good to wait for our next content update.

    Here's a list of improvements:

    • We have fixed one or more significant GPU memory leaks which should improve client stability
    • We have improved our exception logging to capture more useful data to improve our forensics
    • We have reduced the overall logging to slightly improve performance
    • The wormgate to planet Jotania will be opened but we invite more testing – specifically moving around on the planet for extended periods of time, and terraforming sections of the planet.

    That's No Moon Update 7.1.1

    The Haven update was a bit rocky, but we've smoothed the road quite a bit since it was launched.

    Here's a list of improvements:

    • You now receive a Grapple even if you skip the Hallway experience by choosing "I know what I'm doing" during character creation.
    • Resolved the "building and object offset" issue on Haven so everything is in the right place again. This had a lot to do with the inability to interact with NPCs via "G to interact" so that should also be solved, and also caused some of the rubberbanding as you collided with invisible objects.
    • The survey point in the Park will no longer move to the roof.
    • The Shootery targets now take three normal hits to destroy. This makes it easier to understand what Overcharge does when you get to that part of the mission.
    • Fixed the issue with Overcharge where it was sticking "on" after being used once.
    • Cryostar pistol now has audio.
    • Fixed a few mission dialog errors (minor typos)
    • Got the Juvenile Ballhogs (in the Hospital) and the Targeting Dummies (in the Shootery) to stay where they're supposed to be located. Juvenile Ballhogs are also now impervious to harm.
    • The Bank Kiosk has been removed from Haven because it was confusing new users as to why they couldn't access it after leaving Haven.
    • If you abandon all missions in Haven you'll be able to leave Haven (with less stuff, but you can go. 😉
    • Extended the day/night cycle so each is 20 minutes.
    • Gravity generator seams in the Transplanetary League Starbase are fixed so you should have no strange camera issues walking around.
    • The Starbase now has Crafting tables (because they don't exist naturally on planets unless GovBots have progressed)
    • The Trowel recipe is now awarded to you when you unlock the Seed Planting skill box in Farming. (And if you have that unlocked already, you should be able to now use the recipe.)
    • We are adjusting our numbering systems to match the numbering used internally by the development team. So this update is now version 7.1.1 after last week's 7.1.0. We'll all get used to it soon.

    KNOWN ISSUES: We are currently experiencing an intermittent camera disconnect issue.

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    A huge number of changes have been made in this update. The largest of those changes is the new training base on the moon of Haven that you encounter after you finish the Hallway experience with a new character.

     

    Eventually, the new player's path will be:

    Preamble => Hallway => Haven => Crucible => TPL Starbase and Beyond

     

    Currently, Haven is completed and we're working on Crucible, so you'll skip the Crucible step for now and move directly from Haven to the TPL Starbase.

    You must create a new character to experience this part of That's No Moon. Existing characters cannot go to Haven.

     

    So What is Haven?

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    Haven is the name of a moon where a Transplanetary LeagueTraining base has been built for the specific purpose of training new recruits.

    It is a thriving township built around the same concepts as the GovBot townships you build on other planets. This includes its own mayor, Bob Howard (who greets all residents personally).

    The citizens of Haven will send you on a dozen or so short missions crafted to introduce you to fundamental elements needed to understand and enjoy playing Stars Reach.

    Image

    You'll receive Klaatu and XP awards along the way, as well as earning your first tools, and even making your first weapon.

    Everything else should be self-explanatory, and if it's not, that's exactly why we're running these playtests. Please let us know if anything is confusing or tedious! We'd even enjoy hearing if you think it's fun!

    Image

    Systems Pioneered for Haven

    • Underlying mechanisms and categories we need for our procedurally-generated content missions (to be introduced in the near future), used for the first time here in Haven.
    • The BioScanner tool for doing non-destructive scans of Makers and Creatures. (You can use it to add creatures to your collection without having to kill them. They may still try to kill you though.)
      • This will be used for flora scanning soon also, but not quite yet.
    • Better NPC and NPC chat controls
    • The whole mission interface got a massive overhaul (and is used for regular Mission Kiosk missions also)
    • "Scanner" features for the BioScanner, Harvester and Xyloslicer. (TAB to select a resource, then "Q" to scan for where the closest one is in the world so you can hunt it down. Kind of like a cross between Maker Scanning and Mineral Prospecting.)

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    What else is in the Update?

    • First-person perspective is in the game. If you scroll your mouse all the way forward, you'll move into first-person, which is super useful for tight spaces, like complicated buildings or while mining. There are some culling issues we still need to resolve, but it's so useful we wanted you to have it.
    • You can now use "L" (for mission Log) to open/close the mission log directly.
    • When an item is interactable it now has a highlight that applies. This effect is also used when you scan for something with the BioScanner, Harvester, et al.
    • Prediction on homing projectiles is tighter.
    • When Crafting, the "Can Craft" toggle is now on by default. If you want to see everything you can't actually craft at the moment, then toggle that off.
    • Mouse sensitivity slider is in the Game Options now.
    • Nights are brighter. Street lamps cast more light.
    • When you leave the Hallway, you retain the Grappling Hook you received.
    • Moved all creatures to the new shader system. (Better performance and more flexibility going forward.)
    • The Grapple is now shown on your HUD so you can see the status of its battery as you move from spot to spot.
    • When you get a Discovery, you see a flyout message that it occurred.
    • Made the first crate in the Hallway more reliably appear for players. (Tentative, but good fix.)
    • Did a visual effects sweep on the Hallway to improve minor elements.
    • "Maguffin" missions now have some more in-character items to search for
    • Added signs in the Starbase to make things a lot clearer navigation-wise
    • Creatures are no longer Discovered by killing them. Use the BioScanner instead.
    • Homestead limits (number of tiles, number of lights, etc.) are now shown on the Fabricator palette
    • New building tiles and props were added. Concave curve tiles (floor and ceiling), plus some hex lamps, a small desktop computer, and a short cabinet.
    • To make room for non-destructive scanning on the Harvester and Xyloslicer, the Seed Planting ability was moved to a new tool, The Trowel. This is a Farming implement that is available now. To make it, you'll need to acquire the recipe from the Toolmaking tree. You can use it to tree, bush, mushroom, and flower seeds.
    • Create the ability to make "Story" objects. A good example of these are the computers inside the University in Haven. These are not…yet…a player-usable feature.
    • Adjusted all ambient skies.

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    EMOTES

    • You now always get a caption bubble when doing an emote, even if it also plays an animation, so that you can see which mood it was using.
    • You can no longer use freeform emotes if your chat privs have been suspended.
    • Added sigh emote (text only)
    • Added /pose as an alias for /emote

    SPATIAL CHAT

    • Say (and emotes) is now distance limited, in a radius of 25m
    • Yell is 50m
    • Whisper is 10m
    • Added a host of say alternates, see /help say for all of them. Stuff like moan, carol, accuse, implore…
    • All the speech tags should now display with the right tense (e.g, "Fizz (thinks sadly) : message")
    • Speech bubbles now have your mood and your say alternate in them

    TARGETED CHAT

    • You can now target says and emotes (and whispers). If you are using it with a say alternate, it requires the @ sign or else it will take the first word as chat text not a name. And targeting handles partial name matches! This also works with mood prefixes.

    > /say @Bob .
    Avatar – (says to Bob) :
    > /angry intone @Fizz Your doom is nigh!
    Avatar – (angrily intones to Fizz) : Your doom is nigh!

    • Your avatar will turn to face your target when you do a targeted emote at someone, or use whisper or targeted speech. It will not affect your camera.

    • To do targeted emotes, you can do /bow Bob or /bow @Bob. You can also /bow a pizza and use it as a form of free form emoting.

    TELL AND REPLY

    • Added a /reply command which automatically replies to the last person who sent you a tell
    • /r is an alias for /reply
    • /t and /dm added as aliases for /tell
    • Reply and tell also got a bit of a cosmetic makeover
    • Fixed a bug where sending a tell to yourself showed the chat log message twice.

    WHISPER

    Whisper is different from tell — others can see that you are doing it, but they cannot see what you said!

    • The whisper command requires a target player in range.
    • The speaker and the player will see the whisper.
    • Other players close by will see a whisper bubble, but only see "…Fizz angrily whispers to Cal…" inside it.
    • You can /whisper bob or /whisper @bob because a target is mandatory.
    • Whispers will go to the direct message channel

    HELP

    If you type /help you will see it now has categories:

    • Chat
    • Moods
    • Say
    • Emotes
    • Commands (all other player commands)

    You can type /help say to get all the say commands, or /help chat for general chat help.

    You can also now type /help , /help , and help which you could not previously.

    One-shot moods

    This functionality was already present, but got a cosmetic clean-up. This is one-shot setting of the mood for only that one chat, then it reverts to the underlying mood which you have set. So if you type

    > /mood angry
    Your mood is now angry
    > Hi
    Avatar – (angrily) : Hi
    > /sad Despite my anger I feel momentarily sad.
    Avatar – (sadly) : Despite my anger I feel momentarily sad.
    > And now what?
    Avatar – (angrily) : And now what?

    Permanent moods

    If you enter a mood with no words after it, it is the same as typing /mood with that mood.

    > /sad

    Your mood is now sad.

    Command chaining

    You can also prefix /mood with any form of say, whisper, or yell.

    > /sad moan I am moaning sadly!

    Avatar – (moans sadly) : I am moaning sadly!

    Known issue:

    "G" to Interact can sometimes become difficult to use.You may occasionally find it difficult to find the right distance to stand from a character or item to interact with it using the G key. Try moving your character closer/farther, try moving your mouse to mouseover different parts of the person or item, and let us know in Discord if you can't get it to work. We will want all the details so we can try to reproduce the problem.

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  • Starside Weekly – 01.16.2026

    Starside Weekly – 01.16.2026
    Your weekly update on Stars Reach

    THE MOON ON THE HORIZON

    These are the last days of the Hidden Fog Update. A new update is being installed during the next maintenance cycle. Soon you will visit a new moon with the name of Haven. There is much to learn there. This is a particularly good time to start testing Stars Reach.

    Preparation for the new moon: make sure there is one character slot free on your account. You will not be able to experience the new content until you create a new character. Existing characters cannot travel to Haven.

    EVERY NEW MMO YOU CAN PLAY IN 2026

    Respected gaming content creator Force Gaming posted a video this week bucking the current doom & gloom trend among those contemplating the MMO genre. In an effort to increase positivity and hope, he discussed nearly 20 MMORPGs you can play or will be able to play this year.

    Stars Reach was right in the middle of the creation. Click here to jump in at our timestamp:

    UNEVEN SUBSTRATA

    You've picked a spot where you want to build but the location is not flat. What are your options?

    There are more options than you may think. Instead of just terraforming your way to a flat building spot, consider a multilevel build.

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    In this case, Hubert designed an elaborate external staircase to move folks between the upper building and the lower building.

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    The floating staircases may not be to code in your jurisdiction but they work very well on Bixis. 

    Additional highrises are already going up nearby on this hot, new settlement.

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    Big thank you to Chayce and Hubert for this inspiration.

    BUG FIXES

    In the past weeks there have been improvements to camera performance – especially in confined situations like inside buildings or underground caves.

    Additional camera improvements are coming in next week's update as well.

    We have fixed both server crash bugs and client crash bugs.

    The GovBot issue from the 15th has also been fixed and should not be a problem again in the future.

    There have also been a few performance enhancements and some backend improvements to make life easier for the developers so normal tasks don't need to be done manually. This frees up more time to spend on developing or scaling the game.

    PLAYTEST SCHEDULE

    Between an unplanned outage on January 15th and a new update being installed on January 21st, livestreams have moved and playtest schedules are slightly more complicated. These times are presented in Pacific Standard Time but you can see them converted to your time zone in the official Discord's event calendar.

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    LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE

    We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:

    • The Transplanetary League set
    • The Stars Reach logo set
    • The Infinite Worlds set

    You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store

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    HOW YOU CAN HELP 

    If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. 

    ,

  • Starside Weekly – 01.09.2026

    Starside Weekly – 01.09.2026
    Your weekly update on Stars Reach

    2025 MOST ANTICIPATED MMORPG

    For the first time in 10 years, MassivelyOverpowered have awarded the huge honor of Most Anticipated MMORPG to the same game two years in a row.

    That award was bestowed on Stars Reach for 2024 and 2025. We are deeply grateful and honored.

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    BUG FIXES

    In the past week we have fixed a key client crash bug that would happen when attempting to travel through a portal.

    We also fixed a less common but equally annoying server crash bug.

    There have been a few performance enhancements and some backend improvements to make life easier for the developers so normal tasks don't need to be done manually. This frees up more time to spend on developing or scaling the game.

    WELCOME TO TYRARACTA III

    The Servitors have unlocked a portal to a beautiful new planet with a green atmosphere. It's a rugged place with very little flat terrain. Plan for a terraforming pass as your first step if you decide to build a home or settlement here.

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    At night, the green sky turns into a place of mysterious green mists and the shapes of rugged hills and canyons.

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    If you are interested in more of a tour, please see this recording of our livestreamed tour yesterday. 

    STARS REACH VS. NO MAN'S SKY

    Did one of these games influence the other? Are they similar games?

    Controlled Chaos addressed these questions thoroughly in a well-prepared conversation with Stars Reach Game Director Dave Georgeson.

    They looked at the similarities and big differences between the two games which did not influence each other's development at all.

    PLAYTEST SCHEDULE

    For those of you who have been testing for a while, we are back on our normal pre-alpha phase cadence of Thursday-through-Tuesday morning tests. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are reserved for updates, hardware upgrades, backend maintenance, and similar functions.

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    LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE

    We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:

    • The Transplanetary League set
    • The Stars Reach logo set
    • The Infinite Worlds set

    You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store

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    HOW YOU CAN HELP 

    If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. 

    ,

  • Starside Weekly – 01.02.2026

    Starside Weekly – 01.02.2026

    A WALK BACK THROUGH 2025

    Thank you for taking this journey with us. Some of you will remember every item below. You lived each of these moments with us. We started the year with simple game features, placeholder graphics, and prayers that the servers would stay up. We ended the year with some features refined, more user selectable options, better visuals, improved performance, and better onboarding for new players. We are excited about 2026.

    JANUARY

    • January Game Update (before we started giving them fancy names)
    • And the mad scramble to get ready for a recently decided Kickstarter campaign
    • We enjoyed Beanstalk City on Gaiamar

    FEBRUARY

    • Escarion & Quality-of-Life Update
    • Kickstarter Launched and reached its goal in less than one hour.
    • Many new reveals with the Kickstarter stretch goals
    • Megarock City was established on Rodin IV

    MARCH

    • Seasons, Skies, and Public Events Update
    • Procedural Creatures Update
    • Kickstarter officially closed – late pledges remained open
    • Rodney's Western Town was established on Zaraxa

    APRIL

    • World Reset Update
    • Infinite Worlds merch collection released
    • GUNCTown was built on Rodin IV

    MAY

    • Physics Midterm Update
    • Better Homes & Gardens Update
    • Eric Goldberg spoke at GamesBeat Summit 2025 in Los Angeles
    • And who could forget Mycityum on Pyromycis, the amazing mushroom city?

    JUNE

    • Wild Wormholes Update

    JULY

    • Cosmic Calibration Update
    • Brave New Worlds Update

    AUGUST

    • Twilight Update
    • Niina Fujioka spoke at Gamescom 2025 in Cologne
    • The Transplanetary League merchandise collection launched
    • The GAIA Ship was first seen in deep space – the escape from the planet wipe

    SEPTEMBER

    • The Dynamic Update
    • The University Update
    • Raph Koster presented at IGDA SD Demo Days 2025
    • A new Stars Reach logo debuted with supporting merchandise

    OCTOBER

    • Vendor Kiosk Update
    • Recently begun Akavegas expanded dramatically on Akacala.

    NOVEMBER

    • GovBot Update
    • Four planets were claimed and developed at the same time in a first for Stars Reach.

    DECEMBER

    • Hidden Fog Update
    • We were mentioned in more end-of-year roundups and lists of MMORPG coming in 2026

    Our small team kept working hard all year, putting out game updates every 24 days, on average.

    MASSIVELY OVERPOWERED REMEMBERS OUR KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

    In a series of articles, MassivelyOP has been remembering important moments and stories from 2025.

    In a roundup of MMO crowdfunding stories of 2025, they remember the Stars Reach Kickstarter campaign as a standout, positive moment.

    PLAYTEST SCHEDULE

    Our playtest schedule resumes a more "normal" rhythm of Tuesdays & Wednesdays off, Thursdays through Tuesday mornings servers available.

    LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE

    We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:

    • The Transplanetary League set
    • The Stars Reach logo set
    • The Infinite Worlds set

    You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store

    HOW YOU CAN HELP 

    If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. 

    ,

  • Starside Weekly – 12.26.2025

    Starside Weekly – 12.26.2025
    Your weekly update on Stars Reach

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    HAVEN: A MOON UNDER CONSTRUCTION

    It's Christmas week but folks are working hard building a moon called Haven and starting on a planet below it called Crucible.

    The moon will have special missions to bring new players up-to-speed. The planet will have space to try out more destructive abilities without ruining the planet permanently.

     

    We also have some additional improvements coming to text chat, moods, some emotes, new animations, and possibly a friends list.

    You can see more on our roadmap here:

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    MASSIVELY OVERPOWERED KEEPS US UP-TO-DATE

    MassivelyOP briefs readers on the state of Stars Reach, the impromptu leaks by Raph in our holiday fireside chat, and the answers to interesting questions in that livestream.

    MOP have kept a close eye on our development and we are grateful for their interest.

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    MMO.IT ROUND UP OF 2026 MMO

    MMO.IT made a video roundup of the MMOs they are most looking forward to in 2026 and included Stars Reach.

    HOLIDAY CHANGES TO THE PLAYTEST SCHEDULE

    We have some good playtest hours set up for people who have time to play over the holidays. We will be running from 9:00am Pacific/noon Eastern/19:00 CET on Christmas Eve to 8:00pm Pacific/11:00pm Eastern on December 28 (8:00 CET on December 29th).

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    Then we resume play at 9:00am Pacific/noon Eastern/19:00 CET on December 31 and run until January 6, 2026. No livestream on Thursday, January 1st, New Year's Day. The next update will come in January.

    LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE

    We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:

    • The Transplanetary League set
    • The Stars Reach logo set
    • The Infinite Worlds set

    You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store

    Image

    HOW YOU CAN HELP 

    If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. 

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  • Starside Weekly – 12.19.2025

    Starside Weekly – 12.19.2025
    Your weekly update on Stars Reach

    HIDDEN FOG 1.1 & 1.2 UPDATES

    Yes, we have 2 small updates going in over the space of one week. The first one is December 18th and the second one is December 19th.

    We have not tried to patch this rapidly before so this is a test and a learning experience in and of itself.

    There are bug fixes, server-side process improvements, memory use reductions, cleanups, and other small changes. Many won't be visible to you but some will, such as improvements to the first hallway and upgrades to the graphics settings in the escape menu.

     

    More useful details can be found here:

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    HOLIDAY FIRESIDE CHAT

    We had a fun fireside chat with Raph Koster on livestream yesterday.

    There were leaks – some visual like concept art for Hyugons, Stokadi, and the Fae! There were other leaks like visual effects and minor details about stealth. The Bioscanner was leaked – collect all the fauna. And upcoming changes to chat. And did he mention the Corruption?

    Raph answered a bunch of questions from the audience including related to music professions, acting, Newsnet, lore, the moon Haven and its planet Crucible, reactivating previously-learned skills, and player-made missions.

     

    If you missed out, you can see the video recording here:

    HOLIDAY CHANGES TO THE PLAYTEST SCHEDULE

    The two small updates, combined with the holidays, are making us slightly rethink our test schedule for the rest of December.

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    The playtest will be available for you over most of the holidays in case you need an escape from the family. Just kidding.

    STRESS TEST!

    We need your help. If you can spare us one hour this month, please make it be 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern/20:00 CET on Saturday, December 20th.

    Please log into the game on any character, new or existing. Come to the TPL space station and help us push our servers to the limit. Thank you in advance for this valuable service.

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    LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE

    We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:

    • The Transplanetary League set
    • The Stars Reach logo set
    • The Infinite Worlds set

    You can visit the store here: https://starsreach.com/store

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    HOW YOU CAN HELP 

    If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. 

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  • Hidden Fog 1.1 Update Notes

    Hidden Fog 1.1 Update Notes

    UI Change to Skill Window

    The first step to revising the Skill Tree window is accomplished. The aesthetics aren't where we want them yet, but the functionality is great. Take a gander. It's only going to get bigger.

    Improvements to Server Memory Usage

    We've figured out a number of memory leak and optimization strategies for the servers. They should no longer require the periodic resets you've been experiencing during playtests.

    Improved Graphical Settings

    The graphic improvements introduced in the last update have been further improved. Also, fog is now turned on by default (but can still be turned off in the new and improved Graphics Options.)

    NOTE: The graphics settings are not saving currently between logins. This will be fixed shortly.

    Improvements to Hallway

    We've made a series of improvements to the First Time User Event Hallway scenario. They are subtle, but they are based on user feedback, so thank you for that feedback!

    And a number of other bug fixes

    All minor, but all useful. Enjoy!

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  • Starside Weekly – 12.12.2025

    Starside Weekly – 12.12.2025
    Your weekly update on Stars Reach

     

    HIDDEN FOG UPDATE

    This test cycle has been extremely helpful and we have a list of bugs we are working through – some of which you can see on the roadmap.

    Day and night visuals were improved. Volumetric fog and improved terrain tiling were added. The overall effect of these changes can be dramatic and not all of the lighting values and tuning have been completed so more will improve over time. The volumetric fog does impact performance so we have set it as a preference in the escape menu – defaulted to off. (Hence the "hidden fog" reference.) Note: there is one bug affecting lighting in the initial hallway. If you have volumetric fog set to off, some light sources will not be functioning. This is being worked on now.

    There will be a minor patch next week with bug fixes, user interface tweaks, updates to the simulation, and tiny changes to the initial hallway. The update notes will be posted mid-next week.

    More useful details can be found here:

    TESTING PLANET ROTATION

    Recent additions to the game include Wild Wormholes and GovBot.

    Wild Wormholes is being temporarily mothballed while we work on features to support it and make it attractive. This was planned. We needed to shake out the framework of it, prove it could do what we wanted, and now we go back to tooling to make it fun.

    GovBot is doing what we hoped it would do, but with only four static planets at this time, we need to rotate those planets out occasionally so that there are new resources, opportunities for new players, etc.

    Additionally, the mechanics of a planet being "shut down" is part of our gameplay and so we need to test those systems out, regardless of how often it actually occurs in the game.

    So we're making this change to ensure that:

    • There are always new resources entering into the game (which will occur naturally once we have a Galactic Frontier to explore but for now, it needs a way to occur);
    • The worlds aren't constantly in a ripped up state. New players need to see new pristine worlds occasionally, because that will also be common in the launched game;
    • That more than just a handful of people get to try the GovBot experience from scratch. With four static planets, there's no way to allow new players to participate in the GovBot experience if all the planets are already max leveled;
    • That we experience as many biomes and types of planets as possible during these testing phases.

    The drawback, of course, is that established planets will rotate out after a month of playtest time. A month is quite a long time to play and people can get emotionally bonded. That's totally understandable. However, the homesteads and citizenships will be refunded to players when it occurs and there will be plenty of warning before a rotation occurs. Players can pick up items they've made and use them on a new planet.

    Ultimately, this is still a pre-alpha testing phase and despite the drawback mentioned above, we're opting for the overwhelmingly positive aspects so that our tests can produce the most effective and fun game as early as possible. We hope you understand.

    MASSIVELYOP NOTES VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS

    MassivelyOP remarks that while the most recent patch for Stars Reach might not bring a barn burning addition like player cities, what it does do is refine and improve several aspects of the game including several visual effects, the tutorial, and a few facets of its general gameplay experience.

    You can read the full article here:

    MMORPG EXPLAINS PATCH UPDATES

    MMORPG.com mentions that the update doesn't just touch art and visuals. The new player experience has now been completely overhauled with a number of aesthetic improvements, wider hallways to feel less claustrophobic, and a few changes to make the experience a bit more intuitive, from changed dialogue to putting in a ladder where there was previously a shaft you should climb.

    They mention that one of the biggest goals in this update is clearly performance improvement. In addition to the visual upgrades and faster rendering, they've reduced the number of objects where possible. You can check out the full patch notes for more details on all of the changes, as well as improvements and fixes to see how the team is shaping development.

    PLAYTEST SCHEDULE

    We are making testing schedule adjustments for the holidays. This current test will run through Tuesday morning, as usual. But the next test will run Thursday through Monday evening.

    This change will allow us to deploy a mini patch a day early on the next cycle. More on this later.

     

    LOGO MERCH AVAILABLE

    We currently have three sets of logo merchandise in stock:

    • The Transplanetary League set
    • The Stars Reach logo set
    • The Infinite Worlds set

    You can visit the store here:

    HOW YOU CAN HELP 

    If there is one thing you can do to help us, you can wishlist us on Steam. This makes a difference for the algorithm and also helps on the day we eventually launch on Steam. Thank you for this support. 

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